- Should end vaults feature Ghost Moths?
- Should layouts fit the "diagonal corridors" theme discussed on the wiki?
- I assume it should be comparable to e.g. Snake:5 in terms of difficulty and loot?
- Are there any size restrictions? (Would full-level layouts like Crypt ends be permissible or are you looking for smaller areas of map that will still have the level generated around them?)
- Is there any more information around on exactly what is required/planned for spiders nest (the wiki page hasn't been updated or commented on in a while, there are a lot of ideas there, but it's all a bit jumbled).

- What will the total monster set be for the initial implementation? Currently it seems like there aren't that many - compared to e.g. Snake which has a whole variety of snakes as well as the entire Naga race, or Shoals which has a huge range of beasts plus all the merfolk ... and both have their own uniques ... or will Spider be more like Slime with a fairly small variety of monsters a single boss Ghost Moth at the end?

(0014427)
KiloByte (manager)2011-08-31 13:49

There's one big issue with branch ends here: we don't know what will happen with the Hellspider. It pretty thoroughly changes the final fight...

Thus, I guess it'd be safer to think about regular vaults only for now.

(0014679)
Guppyfry (reporter)2011-09-16 18:56

I uploaded 4 mini vaults for spider. Let me know if they need edits.

(0014687)
evilmike (developer)2011-09-17 10:24

I agree with kilobyte, designing branch ends is a bit premature at the moment. I'd just like to say, I'm willing to try making one or two spider branch endings though, when the time comes (which may be pretty soon - I don't know). Right now I'd say there are two things holding me back:

(a) The regular monsters don't seem good enough yet. I just mean general, _varied_ threats worthy of a branch ending. Aside from ghost moths, the only real ending-level threat I can see are emperor scorpions... which are melee-only. Without more ranged attackers, I fear the ending to spider will be a bit too easy unless ghost moths are used heavily (this will get old fast if every spider ending is like this). There are ideas on the wiki that will address this. I particularly like the idea of a web-spitting spider, even though I've never seen a real spider do anything like that. To clarify: I _do_ think it is possible to design a challenging ending using current monsters, I just think it would have to over-rely on ghost moths.

(b) The hellspider. If the hellspider turns out to be a difficult boss, then the spider ending vault itself could be made a bit lighter (no need for more than a couple high level enemies). But, there's still the matter of which enemies would work well in conjunction with the hellspider... and until the details are ironed out, there's no way to tell which enemies (and which arrangement of them) would work best. Therefore, there's no point in trying to design anything for it at the moment, beyond a simple placeholder vault.